PHE 5015 Assignment Revisiting the Work of Public Health
PHE 5015 Assignment Revisiting the Work of Public Health
Positive Health of the communities could only be brought out through the interrelationship between conventional health sector and other development sectors. It was a dream that came true when World Health Organization (WHO) accepted Primary Health Care (PHC) as the major tool to achieve its proposed goal of Health For All (HFA) by 2000 A.D., but we could not succeed as expected. Now we have the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which place health at the heart of development but the achievements in health is still challenging. The literature search in this article has been conducted in Pub Med and Google scholar, with the aim to draw references to discuss the major health issues and ways to tackle them. The current article briefly narrates the burden and complexities of challenges faced by the present global health. Revisiting the concept of PHC and reaffirming our solidarity to this philosophy is the need of this hour.
Introduction
The organized efforts of humanity towards a healthier community are as old as the human civilization. It has faced lots of achievements as well as setbacks in its journey through history, but the revolution of knowledge that happened after the renaissance (15th century) and the public health initiatives thereafter, shaped the modern philosophy of health. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health added much to the concept.[1] As wellbeing is closely linked to the development sectors conventionally considered outside the purview of health,[2] the new definition of Health broadens to include health and development. Now it has entered the post modern era influenced much by the economic reforms and globalization. Eradication of smallpox by an international campaign (1977) and massive achievements in the control of communicable diseases had kindled lot of hope regarding the future of health.[3,4,5]
The acceptance of the principle of Primary Health Care (PHC) by the WHO has spearheaded many activities towards achieving its goal of Health For All (HFA) by 2000 A.D.[6] Although the member countries of WHO formulated their health policies according to the broad vision of HFA 2000, the campaign was not successful in bridging the huge health gap across the world.[7] The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG), was introduced as a philosophical successor of WHO’s HFA by 2000 A.D. MDG envisaged the overall development as the outcome of improvements in health, education, poverty eradication, gender equity, environmental sustainability, and international co-operation. Health sector does not have independent existence. It is closely related to other sectors like education and agriculture. Interestingly, the commission on social determinants of health by the international health organization explained how the health of individuals and communities are affected by inputs from other developmental sectors.[8] Ill health can be tackled effectively only if social determinants are addressed to. Diseases are distally determined by certain social factors and poor health in turn leads to unfavorable social conditions. This acts as a vicious cycle and, therefore, the development of other related sectors becomes inevitable for improvements in health of a community. Poverty is a social evil closely related to ill health across the world, more evident in the under developed nations.